Timberwolves re-sign Julius Randle & Naz Reid! Right move for Minnesota? | NBA News Reactions

Timberwolves re-sign Julius Randle & Naz Reid! Right move for Minnesota? | NBA News Reactions

minnesota Timberwolves actually like were incredibly active this weekend they resigned Julius Randall and Nause the Nause Reed deal is 5125 the Julius Randall deal is I believe 300
300 yeah 300 so the Timberwolves are basically running this back they’re essentially running it back with who they have minus Nikil Alexander Walker adding in two center draft picks and Yan Baron Jay and Roco Zakarsski i believe that Nas Reed and Julius Randall both got player options right um Rand yep yep so you’ve now opened up like a two-year window here with these dudes if I’m Minnesota I’m like totally good with this and here’s the thing that like I think people are kind of underrating a little bit right if I was Minnesota if I was Houston and Houston already upgraded big with the Kevin Durant deal obviously but like I was Denver especially Denver because Denver came very close to beating full strength Oklahoma City as it is yeah i’m probably good just running this back because I don’t know how much better I’m getting by adding like variance and different things to the equation when the reality might be that the variance gods might just hit and like Jaylen Williams is out for the playoffs next year or something or Chadgren’s out for the playoffs next year and Oklahoma City is just a fundamentally different team at that p at that point and you’re in a good spot i like I’m I’m not saying that you shouldn’t go out and explore everything that’s out on the market you should i just also like pretty strongly believe that that upgrade better be pretty aggressive or it better be a situation that you know fits and like makes it super easy to make work otherwise it’s probably not going to help you as much as you want it to yeah I think I I don’t disagree with that that’s a that’s fair um because it’s always sometimes we look at like okay you’re paying this guy that that’s too much and it’s like well what is the replacement right like okay if you don’t give player X this money or whatever well then what are you going to have to do to replace that player what is that money going to look like or what is that replacement player look like I I think just process-wise I’m struggling to wrap my head around what is that $86 million next year to my front court between those three guys um I’m I’m struggling a little bit with that but you know they just have to be awesome like those three guys just have to be awesome playing together and then of course I think the thing that’s hardest for me is this most likely thing like naw is probably going to be gone but we’ve talked about that is eventually
when you get expensive you have to trust your draft picks or minimum signings or whatever you have to win on the margins and so now we’re going to find out if Minnesota won on the margins is Jaylen Clark a find for them is Terrence Shannon Jr a find for them not a onetoone replacement but is trading up into the lottery two drafts ago and drafting Rob Dillingham going to pay off and so ultimately it comes down to those things as well and eventually you got to just lean into them because that’s why you did them was to set you up for situations like this where you had to prioritize the front court and go youth and draft picks and and that in the back court because you can’t afford all of it yeah so I I agree that like they they do still they need some help across the back court but I wonder if they think that they have it internally like I wonder if they think that Rob Dillingham Terence Shannon Jr and Jaylen Clark like if I was them so here’s the real reason why I would have done exactly what they’re doing right now right and resigned the front court as opposed to Nail Alexander Walker
sure i think Jaylen Clark’s really good
sure it’s kind of what I believe
i think Jaylen Clark is going to be a real replacement for Nquille Alexander Walker next year he might be I don’t know 80% 85% of Nikquille Alexander Walker but I think that’s probably about what it’s going to be based off of what I’ve seen from Jaylen Clark at this point
i mean that can go man
there’s a chance he’s better defensively right like a real chance he’s better defensively offensively I think not even really all that close agree
i think that defensively he might be better
he’s just a little more physical than NA is and that may give him a chance to hold up a little bit like he’s just built a little bit stronger like I love Naw trust me I have a video breakdown people can go watch it i rave about it but like he’s going to give up a little bit because he’s a little slider of frame and that that changes how many guys you can match up with and holding your line and and stuff we talk about all the time not a huge thing but I agree i think Clark could be better defensively i I would say there’s not a great chance he’s anywhere close to what Naw was offensively at least next season
yes I would agree but you have Rob Dillingham coming in you have Terrence Shannon coming in like you’ve made your three draft picks
yep
that seem to have worked out right like not including Josh Minot Leonard Miller my dear sweet baby boy that you know those guys like it seems like those two are still trying to figure things out a little bit more but John like Jaylen Clark looks like he can go
yeah Rob Dillingham I’m not a huge fan of Rob Rob Dillingham but they like they clearly are big fans of Rob Dillingham and they clearly believe in Rob Dillingham in some way shape or form which is ultimately what matters right yeah so Rob Dillingham And you have Terence Shannon Jr who played real minutes in the playoffs at times this year and was like a problem in some respects and was super impactful in other respects right like it was real hit or miss so what do you do like I think that you trust in those three guys two of which have shown you something at least and then Rob Dillingham is the guy you’ve invested the most in over in trusting one of those guys to step into NAS’s steps over signing NA and letting one of those two walk i think that this is the way that you had to do it in all honesty
i I think you’re probably right the the NAS number I think these five-year deals are what is like jumping like there’s a shock value in a fiveyear deal for a non-Max
you’re struggling with it yeah
I I am i don’t know why like I need to sit on the combine tomorrow and figure it out like I need to really sit there i have a lot of time to think on that thing um and just really I’m sure my dad would love that a multi,000 piece of equipment is being driven by somebody thinking about the justification of 5 years to Nause Reed and Jabari Smith Jr he’s going to love that good thing he doesn’t listen to the podcast i I don’t know why it just there there’s a little bit of shock value there but here’s the thing i look at each year i don’t complain about the Malik Monk contract Sam so why am I gonna complain about the Nauseri i I realize they’re different players but the role for the team is somewhat similar in terms about right in terms of the percentage of cap as well correct and I don’t yell about Monk i think Monk is awesome and on a good deal so how can I then yell about a Nas Reed contract that may ultimately and eventually see him in the starting lineup like more than a six-man for his team because Randle’s deal is only three years so those final two years Nause has a real opportunity to become the starting four or maybe even before that if you trade Julius Randall at some point or something like that so um I think ultimately the process is probably right because like do you have more faith in Josh May not Leonard Miller Luca Garza or whatever to replace Nas is a rookie Baron um Zakarsski obviously not going to be that to replace one of those guys or as we’ve outlined do you believe in Jaylen Clark Terrence Shannon Jr rob Dillingham yeah I think that you I think they’re making the right choice here at the end of the day because I think that this team should be contending right now like that’s my read is like they are close enough to where they should be contending and should be doing this like with Anthony Edwards maybe like here’s the other thing anthony Edwards still young enough to take a leap sure like still very much in the cards that he could get much better at basketball like imagine if he comes in this year and he’s like “Oh [ __ ] I know how to play slow and make passing reads now.” Like at some point he’s either gonna do that or he’s not going to do it but when he does it if he does it I guess he is a he’s a top three player in the league probably if he does that
and Sam we’re talking about a team
he’s genuinely an MVP candidate if he figures out how to like make passing reads off of different help defense situations as he drives and I would also like I always bring this like I I want a little bit more consistent defensively as well and I think that would catapult him into the echelon we’re talking about and he’s already an allNBA player this team has gone to backtoback Western Conference finals
like back to back so again I’ve said this about the Rockets when they got the two seed last year we cannot say that the Western Conference is loaded and then undermine a team that has gone to back-to back Western Conference finals and then this year lost to the eventual champions we we can’t undermine that and not treat them like real contenders th those two things can’t happen we can’t say it’s loaded and then discredit the team that’s gone to the Western Conference final two years in a row back to back and has all of the same well actually it’s different pieces but in this scenario would be then now running it back with the same group here’s the other thing you know what we always do with the Knicks what caveat do we always give the Knicks Sam that trade happened in October and they didn’t have all offseason to figure it out
totally
we don’t we haven’t said it enough about Julius Randall and Dante Devenzo like it’s the same idea for them that trade happened the same day for them that it did for the Knicks
100% it’s 100% right they are now just in terms of where they sit away from the cap and the aprons and everything they’re they’re way over the cap obviously but they are 12 million away from the second apron at this point they do have the 4.2 million from Baron Jay that will cut into that a little bit so they’re basically looking at minimums in like maybe some of the non- taxpayer MLE i would guess that they probably bring in a perimeter player of some repute at some point i’ve always thought that one of the Joneses like makes sense to me be it Tyus Jones Trey Jones something like that just get another guy to like run the offense maybe but I will say that
maybe somebody with a little bit more size like a Don Wright or something could be helpful but like that’s more what you’re looking at here at this point with the Wolves they’ve kind of made their bed here I think with right we’re going down swinging with a with Goar with Randall with Jaden with Nas with Dante the kids like Dillingham Shannon and Clark we’ll see what Leonard Miller is maybe you bring back Josh May not like and we kind of let it rock right
yeah yeah riot would track for me just because like the defensive aspect of it you know what I mean like you have Connley you have Dillingham like actually like Connley knock down shots be the vet leader set the table dillingham come in be a nuclear scorer okay we actually just need somebody to come in and guard like we need the defensive one dylon Wright kind of makes sense there for me in terms of giving you like a trio of small guards smaller guards guards that give you a little bit something different depending on the situation yeah and just to be clear people in the comments are saying this uh they didn’t pick up the options on May not or Luca Garza that does not mean that they can’t like resign those players they absolutely can resign them they still hold their bird rights if they want to uh it’s just that that you do this right now to open up some flexibility both of those guys are like questionable as whether or not they’re real NBA players so you want the flexibility here moving forward to be able to see okay is there something that we can do that like really makes this like functionally work here

Timberwolves re-sign Julius Randle & Naz Reid! Good or bad move for Minnesota? | NBA News Reactions

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Sam Vecenie, a Senior NBA Writer at The Athletic, talks all about basketball. From the NBA, to the NBA Draft, to college hoops and even some high school, Vecenie has you covered in this show.